Epilogue
One was waiting for him when he returned to the London flat.
"Tea?" He asked as he moved to the kitchen.
"Please." One replied.
When they had their tea, and had each taken a sip, One got down to business.
"Remuneration has been deposited as requested." He said. "About the supplemental contract?"
80 put his tea down. "I won't be signing the supplemental." He said. "I like Hermione, and she likes me. I won't have her thinking it's because of a contract."
One nodded at that."Good. Better than expected. I was impressed you subcontracted her for the Azkaban portion. I was even more impressed with her performance."
"She's brilliant, I'm going to marry her." He said.
"Excellent. That was the purpose of the supplemental, so it's entirely unnecessary anyway." One raised a grizzled lip, it was the closest he ever got to a smile.
"Why?" He asked, "Why is it important we marry?"
"Without her, you become me. She is your salvation, your completion, your purpose. You need her as much as she needs you." One looked out the window behind him, and his eyes went unfocused, lost in memories.
"I won't pretend I understand that yet, but... She does make me feel things. Even through the dampening." He said. "I'm looking forward to more."
"You started getting underarm hairs." One chuckled. It was a horrifying sound.
"And chest hairs. Two."
One simply raised his lip again and nodded. "You know how to contact me if you need to." He set his tea down again, and stood up.
80 stood as well. "I do. Thanks."
"Remember to take time to enjoy life, kid. I'll see you later." One vanished, and 80 finished his own tea before he dumped One's down the sink. He didn't bother to unpack, he kept his briefcase shrunk and in his pocket all the time anyway in case he needed it.
He watched a little telly, sharpened his knives, and mostly read through the books he'd collected over the year, he knew he'd have to share with Hermione, and she was voracious. The Flint and Malfoy family libraries were particularly interesting.
He got back to his training regimen as well as reading and practicing new magics, until the next afternoon when Hermione called on the number he'd given her.
It was the first of many times he would spend the day with Hermione and her parents over the summer.
On the 25th of July, Neville and his Gran joined them for a trip to Alton Towers, and neither boy had ever enjoyed themselves so much. Hermione couldn’t stop laughing at Neville’s grandmother whooping in joy as she rode the spinning teacups. Neville loved seeing his grandmother enjoying herself. Apparently he’d never seen it before. They took Neville and his Gran on a few of the roller coasters as well, but Neville wasn’t fond of them and got a little queasy. His grandmother said they were “just like going to the vault.” She was unimpressed by them. She was, overall, impressed by the state of the muggle world - even moreso after they journeyed to downtown London. She looked gobsmacked at the enormous steel and glass buildings, the huge numbers of cars and people all just going about their business.
She got along swimmingly with Hermione’s parents, and there were subsequent trips that summer and after, not the least of which was to sit on a session of parliament. Hermione’s parents found it boring but of academic interest, while Gran Longbottom found it riveting.
Harry and Hermione were rarely separate over that summer, and usually trained and then sat reading in the Granger’s back garden. It took just over three weeks for Hermione to catch up on the schooling she’d missed during her year at Hogwarts, and she and Harry made significant headway into the material they would cover during the coming year.
While at Westminster School, they technically fit in, which is to say they wore the uniform and attended classes and interacted with the other students. They didn’t really fit in because both of them refused to play the social games like Pecking Order and Your Boyfriend/Girlfriend Likes Me Better. Harry and Hermione were always a unit, and frequently didn’t even have to verbalize their conversation.
After their first year there, most of the students took the hint and simply left them alone to get on with it. There were a few who were not quite bright enough to take the hint, and a few others who were bright enough to take them as a team and become friends.
They took Neville on a tour of their school over the Christmas break, and introduced him to their other friends. Neville had never had so much fun or acceptance, and wore a grin most of the time.
During that summer, Neville introduced them to Luna, whom he had defended during the months before summer. Because she was different she was naturally a target, but Neville had stood up to the whole school and even informed her head of house what was happening under his nose. Apparently he had somehow missed a student being locked out of the dorm and walking around with no shoes.
Harry and Hermione could see immediately that Luna’s strange and flighty demeanor was armor to hide the scared and vulnerable girl inside, so they accepted her without reservation. Occasionally Harry and Neville would do something boyish together like take in a quidditch or football match, and Hermione took the opportunity to teach Luna how to control the knife she’d given her properly. Luna’s was a crescent moon blade called a karambit, and she absolutely loved it.
Life was stable for the next few years. Harry and Hermione studied and trained together, and took the time to enjoy spending time with friends. Harry learned a great deal about feelings and the nature of his relationship with Hermione, and even came to enjoy seeing their friends internally, with actual happiness at their presence.
During the few short weeks that they were both fourteen, Hermione introduced Harry to kissing. She then introduced him to snogging mere minutes later. They both had twelve reprimands for tardiness that year at school.
True to her word, the week after Harry turned sixteen they were married. The Grangers had become used to Harry, and when Hermione was no less adamant at sixteen than she had been at twelve, they finally accepted that he would in fact be their son in law. Lennox Granger accompanied his daughter down the aisle, and shed a tear for the bittersweet moment. Harry and Hermione had been thoroughly warned against any additional Potters before they graduated, so precautions were taken, but their wedding night was eye-opening and window-rattling for the both of them. And the neighours.
The first day of their honeymoon, Hermione demanded family magic training. Harry was completely bemused and spread across the bed like jam, but was only too happy to comply.
They established their own company that year, Global Balancing Services, that was owned by another company that was owned by another company that they both owned. They leaked word in the secret spaces of the world that such a company existed, and they turned down seven contracts and accepted two that first year.
When she was eighteen, Hermione took her first solo contract, and successfully brought an end to a rising dark lord in Hong Kong. Harry was along too, just in case, but he wasn’t worried. Hermione completed her contract in less than a day, collected her quarter-million Euro fee, and they spent the next week sunning themselves on sandy beaches in the south of Asia.
They took a gap year after graduation from Westminster School. They’d both graduated in the top twenty, but not the top ten, as they didn’t want the attention. They each took a few contracts during their gap year, and traveled the world. They attended Neville and Luna’s wedding, and wished Neville’s Gran good luck as she went off on a world cruise the minute Neville took over as Family Head.
Harry and Hermione attended Oxford after their gap year. Originally the plan had been to do as they pleased after Westminster, but what they pleased turned out to include studying things they were interested in. It didn’t take them long to figure out they might as well get degrees for what they were already doing.
In summer of 2004, Hermione spotted a man wearing their work clothes, shaved bald, and pointed him out to her husband.
It was 47.
They wrote a letter to him, and put it in the inside breast pocket of his jacket while outside time. They both knew he was probably working and didn’t have time for a conversation just then, so they left him the letter. In it, Harry told how he and Hermione were working, and the name of their business, and invited him to tea whenever he had a free day.
47 found the letter the following day when he’d completed his contract and taken his jacket off. He’d also seen the piece of paper upon which Harry had written KICK ME stuck to the inside of the back of the jacket. While he’d been wearing it.
47 didn’t smile, but he did experience an unfamiliar surge of pride.
The End.